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"What happened?"

"She loved me," he said "She trusted me, and I hurt her"

"Jason?" I touched his shoulder

"I can’tand looked up at me "Look what I did to her Look how broken she is"

We both looked back at the girl, and alain with a new kind of melody, laden with a sliver of malice, as he continued his vain atteed beyond repair, and no ht he pulled that stitch, she would never look at hiain

"Jason" I tried to make him see, tried to ony--too far gone for me to save He ith her, in whatever Hell they had been dragged down to

"Oh, Ara" He lifted the girl,her spine bend in an unnatural way, and cradled the back of her head against his face "Ara Ara Ara," he said, over and over again

It started echoing away, becoh the treetops I looked up, heard it resonate from over the hill, out there, somewhere in the darkness

Ara

I looked behind me

Ara

My eyes flashed open to a dark rooht fist, the cry of the wind living outsidemy name I ju the noise It was so dark I bus as s beneath the screamed carried up the emptiness inside it and whirled around rabbed themy breath, but the noise stopped

"Hello?" I called cautiously, squatting down, placing flat pal but a draft and the shtly crawled into the hollow, praying nothing creepy sprung up out and grabbed ain; I lifted my head, rocked back onfro from the wall

I was just about to rush acrossdown the hall I ran for the door, yanked it open and looked past Falcon to the end of the corridor Arthur ca to hi bowl

"What’s going on?" I asked Falcon

He shrugged "Nothing Why?"

"I heard screa"

His eyes narrowed "It was probably just a bad drea"

I nodded, but I knew I heard it, even if he didn’t "I don’t expect you to understand, Falcon, so you can follow me if you want to, but don’t stop , vaguely lad That noise was a sound of pure terror; the person who screaony that couldn’t be repaired I had to find them I had to set the, Arthur was already gone I spun around a few ti to catch his scent

Falcon cleared his throat and pointed toward the ing

"Thanks, Falcon"

"Don’t

The noise continued down here, and this ti up quickly besideI heard"

A door popped open at the end of the hall, and Falcon grabbedme closer to the wall A man closed that door behind hiht, I letout of rip

"Ara?" He stopped dead "What are you doing out of bed?"

"I could ask you the sa" I nodded to the bowl "What happened?"

He looked weary, worn He rubbed his brow and walked past ht terrors?" I looked at Jason’s door "Is he okay?"

"He’s asleep now As should you be"

"I heardcalled"

Arthur dropped his hand frofor you in his sleep"

"Why?"

He sighed "Who do you think he was dreahtened "Is it…does he dream about the tortu…"

"Yes," he cut in "Leave it in the past, Amara It’s late"

And that was that He walked ahead and disappeared, leaving me in the darkness of the second floor corridor

I looked up at Falcon "Night terrors"

He nodded "Guilty conscience"

"But…he shouldn’t be feeling guilt"

"He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t, Ara"

I smiled "He’s not human"

"Yes, he is He’s just an i chatter seeht, the people alive with the presence of our newco seenat his eht, and he’d hardly touched his food, even Eric was quiet None of the knights were yelling jokes down the table at each other and the tell-tale sign that Arthur was in soret forced her opinions around about the reign of Genghis Kahn, and he just sat there, with nothing to say Her theories were enough to make me choke In fact, the only time Arthur came to life was to rap Jason across the back of the head every tiht side, at least Mike and Arthur shared one thing in common, for once; they both wanted to flatten Jason

The saht continued down the table, except, tonight, Jason was joining in I tuned out most of it, since it was all irrelevant; my husband was alive, so, who the father of my child should be really wasn’t ih," Walter said "Fact is, we need a new king and an heir--the prophecy is of little significance at this point"

"Well, I’ll do it" Jason shrugged; everyone looked at him "Even if the queen doesn’t love me, I’ll be more than happy to step intoyou would be, too," Old Margret said, grinning bashfully at Jason "I’ve only heard stories of your talents"